Sweet Potato Pappardelle with Brown Butter, Walnuts & Sage
Posted by Neil Brody Miller on April 26, 2010
Some ingredients are so good you know that whatever dish you prepare with them will probably turn out great. On such occasions, the only real concern is not to screw up the preparation, and to let the quality of the key ingredient speak for itself. Tonight’s dinner was one of those occasions, and featured one of those ingredients, the Flour City Pasta Sweet Potato Pappardelle I purchased last Saturday at the Central NY Regional Market. Thankfully, the recipe for a brown butter sauce with toasted, chopped walnuts and grated Pecorino Romano cheese, which is adapted from a classic ravioli recipe, is about as simple is it gets, and the dish turned out every bit as good as I hoped.
First, it should be said that the pasta was a thing of beauty all by itself, the product exudes the love, skill and experience of dedicated artisans, along with an accompanying commitment to use only the finest organic ingredients. I feel foolish for not taking a photo of the dry pasta before putting it in the pot, but let’s just chalk up the lapse to unrestrained enthusiasm.
The pasta took about 10 minutes to cook al dente. In the meantime I browned a couple of tablespoons of unsalted farmhouse butter from Meadow Creek Farm of Interlaken, NY and about a 1/4 cup of chopped walnuts in a large sauce pan, until the kitchen was filled with rich, nutty aromas from the sauce, and sweet spice aromas of cinnamon from the pasta. When the pasta was ready, I added about a cup of the salted pasta water to the sauce, then drained and added the pasta to the sauce pan, along with a good pinch of dried sage and some ground black pepper, and let everything come together over moderate heat until almost all the liquid was absorbed. Off the heat, in quick succession I added the grated Pecorino, poured a glass of wine (the 2007 Salmon Run Meritage), and sat down to enjoy.
Stupid grin in a bowl good. Happy feet good. What could be better than perfectly matched ingredients, and a quick, simple preparation? The pasta had a wonderful, firm texture, with subtle, sweet potato flavors and the sweet spice aromas of cinnamon and nutmeg, which were perfectly complimented by the nutty, smoky, salty flavors of the browned butter, toasted walnuts and grated Pecorino, and the savory note and slight bite of the sage and black pepper. The wine, the 2007 Salmon Run Meritage (Salmon Run is the second label of the Dr. Konstantin Frank Winery), which didn’t impress me the night before on its own, was a great match, the moderately high acidity cut through the richness of the brown butter sauce, while the pasta brought out and deepened the wine’s dark red and black fruit flavors.
The moral of this story is as simple as the preparation. Find Flour City Pasta, either at the Central NY Farmers Market or wherever else it is available. Buy Flour City Pasta. Eat Flour City Pasta. Then tell a friend. Or cook it for your mom on Mother’s Day, or to impress the hell out of a first date. New York City doesn’t have better pasta than this. Portland, Oregon doesn’t have better pasta than this. In fact, no one, anywhere, has better pasta than this. So find it, buy it, and enjoy it. We are very, very fortunate that Jon Stadt and his dedicated staff call Central New York their home.
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2 Responses to “Sweet Potato Pappardelle with Brown Butter, Walnuts & Sage”Leave a comment, and if you'd like your own picture to show up next to your comments, go get a gravatar!
Mmmm, that sounds good! Great use of local products in the recipe and in the recommended wine pairing!
Sounds great — and like a dish I had at a place in Harrisburg called Bricco. Hurrah!